Other Links

Forum—Research That Goes Beyond the Farm Gate

The 4-H Club, that venerable bastion of educational activity for
American
youth, summed it up admirably in the club's motto: "To make the
best
better."

Those five simple words also encompass the purpose of the
Agricultural Research Service
The United
States has the world's greatest agricultural system, capable of
producing the
most abundant, safe, and affordable food supply anywhere--as well as a
multitude
of nonfood products important to everyday life.

Given this demonstrated level of excellence, is it really possible
to make
the best better? ARS scientists believe it is, and they've put their
ingenuity
to work time and time again to accomplish just that.

It might surprise some that the agency focuses not only on creating
the best
agricultural raw materials, but also on developing the most efficient
and
cost-effective use of those materials. For example, in this issue of
Agricultural Research, you'll read how ARS scientists designed a
system
that uses fiber optic probes to reveal possible quality problems in
chicken
carcasses as they speed down the processing line.

ARS has a deep commitment to technology transfer, going beyond
breeding a
great new soybean variety or creating an ag-based, environmentally
friendly
product to helping propel ideas and inventions from the laboratory to
the
marketplace. ARS wants its discoveries to be useful and practical--as
well as
exceptional.

Some of ARS' processing successes are now legendary--the development
of
technology for durable-press cotton fabric, for example, or the
Time-Temperature
Tolerance Project that laid the foundation for the procedures still
followed
today in processing frozen vegetables. Let us not forget that 50 years
ago,
frozen condensed orange juice--today a staple of the American
breakfast--was on
the fast track to failure until ARS researchers helped fine-tune the
process for
preserving its flavor.

Through the years, there have been many ARS processing-oriented
discoveries
to celebrate, such as:

· ARS scientists in Louisiana have shown that spinning
cotton
in a new way can make the most of the strength and versatility of
naturally
colored cotton fabrics. Some cotton varieties can grow in soft earth
tones of
olive green, pumpkin, or deep russet, eliminating the need for dyes.
But these
fibers also tend to be shorter and weaker than white varieties,
complicating the
spinning process. Two ARS-patented methods of spinning--staple-core and
filament-core spinning--can be used to make composite yarns with an
outer layer
of naturally colored cotton and a tougher inner core of white cotton or
synthetic fibers. The resulting fabrics have the look and feel of
solid-colored
cotton, complemented by extra fiber strength.

· Also in the world of textiles, ARS scientists in
Mississippi
developed a new computerized system that automatically measures cotton
quality
at various stages of gin processing. This system predicts the effects
of
moisture content, color, and trash and then routes the cotton through
the proper
mechanical cleaning and drying sequences so it gets an optimum grade.
This means
ginners can customize their ginning process for each farmer. Data from
1994 to
1996 show farmers receive additional profits of $10 to $20 per bale
with the
customized ginning system. The system also cuts energy use, thereby
saving the
ginner nearly $1 per bale.

· A soy protein refining process developed by ARS
scientists in
North Carolina yields protein so pure it rivals synthetic proteins used
by the
pharmaceutical industry. The same protein has great food potential; for
example,
it might be whipped into fat-free dessert topping. In the soybean
industry,
60-percent protein purity is the standard, but the ARS process yields
nearly
100-percent pure protein.

· Software developed by ARS researchers in Wyndmoor,
Pennsylvania, helps food processors predict the fate of
E. coli O157:H7 and other illness-causing food pathogens,
including
Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes,
in their products. The user types in information on food
formulation or
storage conditions, including temperature, salt levels, and acidity.
Then the
program graphically predicts the growth or death of the organism. This
user-friendly software provides a first-round estimate of the safety
potential
of foods.

· ARS scientists at Wyndmoor also developed a process to
use
potassium chloride in the meat-packing and hide-tanning industries, in
a switch
from the common salt now used. Shifting to potassium chloride would
help the
packing and tanning industries solve an environmental problem--disposal
of the
leftover salt brine. Unlike sodium, potassium is a plant nutrient, so
the waste
from the new process could be put to work as crop fertilizer. The ARS
scientists
say leather quality is just as high when produced with potassium
chloride.

From snack foods to leather goods, ARS scientists go the extra mile
to find
ways to turn the world's best raw products into even better finished
goods--all
part of keeping American agriculture and industry competitive in the
global
marketplace.

L. Frank FloraARS National Program Leader
Product Quality and Utilization

"Forum" was
published in
the May 1998 issue of Agricultural Research magazine. Click
here to see
this
issue's table of contents.